


Poets

by Anonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Dorks in Love, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, VLD Summer Exchange, blue lion is best wingman, it's cute, takes place between seasons 2 and 3, they get stranded on a beach planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-07 12:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: " Pidge was not a poetic person, she'd decided. She was fluent in the language of binaries, ofif'sandthen'sand one's and zeroes, not so much at stringing words into sentences worthy of being captured in ink.She wasn't poetic, she decided, as she began to compare the azure of Lance's eyes to that of the water that shone around them, casting an ethereal glow upon his dark skin. As she listened to his breath hitch, the sound soft like a distant ocean wave. As he watched a school of Splenden-like alien fish swim across Blue's screen, gliding through the water with ease. As the corners of his mouth twitched upwards into an awestruck smile, and he gazed through the screen at the plants and creatures drifted that through the blue, circling them, like bits of stardust revolving around a sun. And he was the sun.Yup. Definitely not poetic. "~aka the fic where lance and pidge get stuck on a tropical planet similar to earth for a few hours, and emotions are felt.





	Poets

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! this is my gift to cafebat for the vld summer exchange! i accidentally posted this early so this is my second upload, whoops. the prompts i used were pidgance, exploring worlds unknown, and rest and relaxation. it turned out to be way longer than i expected, so i hope that's alright! enjoy!

_“MERMAID BABES, HERE I COME!”_

Pidge had to bite back a giggle and force out an exasperated groan in its place as she watched the Blue Lion nosedive into glimmering ocean, disrupting the waves kissing the shore and sending ripples through the dark water. She landed her lion in the sand nearby (the same pale purple of a lilac interspersed with flecks of silver, as if _that_ wasn’t gorgeous,) nestled near some foliage, and prepared to step out onto the planet.

“Anything to report?” Pidge asked, doing a quick scan of her surroundings. Green’s readings told her exactly what she needed to know; the atmosphere was breathable, the water wasn’t going to melt through Blue’s exterior or kill anyone that drank it, and the surface temperature of the planet was bearable, albeit high. It was Approximately 86 degrees Fahrenheit, 30 degrees Celsius. Nothing a girl who grew up in Arizona couldn’t take.

“Uh… I see some shrimp things, some bubbles, but mostly nothing. No mermaids.” Lance announced, lion gliding through the water. A few small creatures, looking like strange plankton that weren’t much bigger than golf balls drifted across the screen of Lance’s lion, paying no mind to the vessel that had just crashed straight into their underwater home.

“No mermaids? Not like the first time you were stranded on an ocean planet?” Pidge teased, recalling the last time Lance had gone chasing after mythological creatures and how no one had believed him when he told the story.

“Plaxum is real, Pidge, I’m telling you.” Lance deadpanned. “She’s out there, and she’s in love with me.”

Pidge only believed the first part, of course. She snickered. “That’s not what Hunk said.”

“Hunk’s a big liar! He met her, he was with me the whole time!”

“Uh-huh."

After a few more minutes of flipping through Green’s data about the planet, Pidge determined it was safe to exit her lion and stepped out onto the sand, immediately regretting it when she did.

Holy _quiznack_ had she underestimated the heat.

Thank Alfor for the temperature regulation systems in the Paladin armor and their tinted visors, or she’d be sweaty and blind as soon as she was out of that ship. Now that she wasn’t restricted to the eyes of her lion, Pidge could get a better look around the planet, and from what she could see, it was already beautiful.

It was the epitome of the word “tropics”, with wildlife that reminded Pidge of both an earth beach and a rainforest. Deep blue, almost indigo waves crashed upon lilac sand, twin suns hanging low over the water (it was late afternoon, she guessed) casting purple and red patterns across the surface of the water. The forest behind her was thick, green, with blue and purple, winged creatures perched upon the branches of odd shaped trees, and small, six-legged reptiles darting through the moss.

Okay. Maybe not exactly like earth.

Lance emerged from the water shortly after, and slid out of the mouth of his lion once she’d reached the beach. His arms were crossed and there was a very obvious pout on his face as he made his way to Pidge’s side.

“Well, better luck next time, buddy.” She said, not looking up from the leaf she’d picked up and had been turning over in her hand, which seemed to have a silvery-blue sheen to it. Lance groaned.

“Well, it doesn’t look like there’s anything too interesting here, so I say we just grab what we need and go,” Lance suggested, tracing patterns into the sand with the toe of his boot. “What did Allura say we needed again? That weird glittery plant, right?”

“Osmade berries” Pidge corrected, and he nodded.

“Right, right. The ones that look peaches.”

“Yes. They’re used in the antibacterial solution in the healing pods and aren’t made to last ten thousand years, so we want to pick up as many as possible.” Allura had essentially been giving the Paladins busywork to keep their minds off the disappearance of Shiro, not that that was working, though. Solo missions retrieving things from here and there, rescues of small planets, thorough scans of anywhere the Black Paladin may be. This time around, Pidge and Lance had gotten paired up, as well as Hunk and Keith, and the two Alteans had wormholed off somewhere else, meaning they didn’t really have a castle to report back to once they’d completed their mission, at least not for a few vargas.

“Any idea on how to find them?” Lance had begun gingerly picking through one of the bushes with his still-gloved hand. Apparently, plants were not his thing.

“I don’t know, Lance, you’re the gay one here, don’t you attract sparkles or something?” The comment sounded better in Pidge’s head. She broke a branch off the bush and watched as orange-red sap began to trickle out of the break. “Sorry, dumb joke. Why are you so eager to leave? We don’t really have anywhere else to go, and besides, it's so _pretty_ here.”

Lance decided to avoid telling her that being near the ocean was reminding him too much of Varadero, and he was starting to feel that familiar homesickness gnawing away at him from the inside. “Um, excuse me, bi.” He reminded her, completely avoiding her question. She snorted. “But yeah, I guess it's kind of cool here.” Lance took in his surroundings, then spotted a few small, winged aliens perched upon the branches of a nearby tree. He pointed to one, and Pidge followed his gaze. “Those bird things are weird looking- wait, space pigeons! Pidge, look, it's your family!”

“OH MY GOD, FINALLY!” Pidge laughed, mock excitement in her voice. She threw herself at the tree and wrapped her arms around it, frightening a few birds and causing them to fly off with panicked squawks. “DAD, MATT, I’VE MISSED YOU! Wow, you two have way more feathers than the last time I saw you.”

Both teenagers broke out into a fit of giggles when one bird jumped down onto a branch closer to Pidge to stare at her curiously. It was small, with mostly red and yellow feathers, and black markings around its eyes.

“It looks like it's got glasses on.” Pidge pointed out, and Lance hummed in agreement. “We'll name this one Matt.”

“Uhh, no.” Lance cut in, and Pidge raised an eyebrow. “Your brother’s hot. This bird is super weird looking.”

“You think Lance is a better name?”

“HEY!”

Lance shoved Pidge's arm a little too hard and she stumbled, laughing as she regained her balance and went to reciprocate.

“I’m just joking, La- hey, wait, are those the berries?” Pidge cut herself off and Lance spun around to look at where she was pointing to a nearby plant. Sure enough, Osmade Berries hung heavy from every branch, glinting in the light of the two suns.

“Oh, HECK yeah! Nice eye, Pidge!” The taller of the two pumped his fist in the air and ran towards the tree, only slipping on the slick moss once on his way _(nice one, sharpshooter.)_ The fruit was about the size of an earth peach, just like Allura had said, and pulled right off the branches. Pidge ran to his aid in carrying armfuls of them back to the lions, and soon enough, they’d collected about thirty berries each.

“Think that’ll be enough?” Pidge asked, setting the last one into a storage container in her lion. Lance shrugged.

“I don’t know. Hope so. If not, we’ve got, what, three, four vargas to kill? We can get more. I don’t know why Allura and Coran gave us so much time before coming to pick us back up.” Four vargas. How would they handle being bored for that long?

Never mind. Lance had an idea.

“My guess is the Osmade plants aren’t extremely common, and we just happened to land on an area of the planet where there was an abundance of them. Pretty lucky, if you ask me. We should definitely do some exploring while we have the time, some of the plants here are _suuuper_ strange looking, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I used to hate nature, but now after that whole thing with the Olkari and figuring out my lion’s abilities and- Lance. _Lance_ , what are you doing?”

Pidge had stopped her rambling when she noticed that Lance had wandered off in the direction of the water, and was now literally stripping off his armor in front of her, eyes fixated on the waves. “I’m going swimming, duh! I've been robbed of my summer vacation and like, my entire earth life now, so I can stay at the beach for a bit!” Lance was protesting before Pidge’s argument had even left her mouth, and she snapped it shut. _Summer vacation, huh?_ Pidge wondered what the date was back on earth, let alone the season.

“Plus, the ship is dark and my skin is in desperate need for some sun- hey, can you help me get my calf pieces off? I can never do that myself.” He stuck his leg out at Pidge, grabbing her attention again. She stared at his leg for a moment, then his face, then his leg again, then his impatient expression. “Well?”

“Are you wearing anything under that?” She had to ask.

“Boxers?” Lance offered. “I didn’t exactly bring a swimsuit.”

“Right.”

Lance sat in the warm sand, Pidge following shortly after to help him out of his armor, and as soon as he was free his bare feet were kicking up sand (much to Pidge’s annoyance) and he was running into the waves. The water was freezing, obviously, but aside from the strange little foot dance he did when he’d first touched the water he had no reaction, and dove under the next wave. Pidge stood up, waiting for him to resurface.

Lance grinned as he submerged himself in the water, blowing his breath out through his teeth to avoid getting salt in his mouth. The water felt cool against his skin, which had already started to grow uncomfortably hot from the sun, and he spent a few moments just letting the waves pass over his head before going up for a breath. He missed this.

It was a few ticks before he emerged from the water (Lance had a high lung capacity) and shook out his brown locks. He flashed Pidge a pearly white grin and motioned for her to come join him, not even phased by the wave that had just crashed into his back.

“Come on, Pidge, the water feels great!” Lance called, reaching his hand out to her. She gave him a look, and he motioned again, but she merely shook her head.

“Nope.” She said flatly, and Lance's shoulders sagged. “I'm gonna go look at the plants, you can play in the water.” Pidge began to wander into the brush, looking around with awe as she did, and Lance huffed. The water wasn't as fun alone.

It felt just like an earth beach, honestly, the waves gentle enough to remind him of those from Varadero. The water somehow felt slightly thicker though, Lance decided, unsure of what that meant or how he'd describe it. But salt stung his eyes and water was in his nose nonetheless, and it was good enough to tone down his homesickness for that moment.

He watched Pidge wander into the brush, slicing through some vines with her bayard, and fiddle with some sort of scanner she'd built from spare parts found in the castle. At one point she took her helmet off to get a closer look at something, causing her hair to fly out in all directions, and let the helmet rest at her hip. She reached up into the branches of an Osmade plant (on her tip-toes, too, she was so small and it was honestly adorable) and plucked a berry from it, turned it over in her hand, and took a bite.

Lance couldn't see her expression, but the berry must've tasted alright, because she took another bite.

“Don't get food poisoning!” Lance called, and she turned to stick her tongue out at him, lips sticky with red juice.

“Yeah, well, don't get killed by space sharks or something, either!” Pidge shot back, and Lance laughed.

“There aren't space sharks here, Pidge! Just me and the water and these little shrimp dudes!” Lance tried to grab one of the strange creatures he'd seen in his lion as it swam by to show her, but missed, having underestimated the creature’s speed.

“You're not supposed to get in the water until an hour after you eat, Lance, I'm alright.” She turned away, and with the sharp part of her bayard, sliced off a few leaves from the tree and placed them into a storage container.

“You're talking to an ex-lifeguard here!” Lance argued, but she didn't look back. “Junior lifeguard of seven years and Defender of the Universe, you don't have to worry about stomach cramps or space sharks with me here!”

Pidge was not as impressed as he thought she would be.

 _Whatever_ , Lance decided, diving back under the water. _I don't need Pidge to have fun_. He swam out a little further, picking at some shells and rocks in the sand and trying to get his eyes used to the salt water. Slowly, he let all the breath leave his lungs, watching as the bubbles trailed upwards from his mouth and to the surface, and let himself fall back into the sand.

He was really, really bored.

Poking his head out of the water slightly, he could see that Pidge had dragged more of her equipment out and was typing furiously into her laptop. One of the weird reptilian creatures wandered in her direction and she shooed it away, ignoring it as it opened its tiny jaw and tried to be threatening.

Again, Arizona.

Lance dove under the water and swam in the direction of Pidge until it was too shallow for him to do so. Then he stood up and sifted through the sand for small, smooth rocks, cradling them in his left arm. When he thought he had enough, he quietly approached Pidge, and once she was completely still, all her focus on her laptop, he placed one rock atop her brown curls.

“...What the heck, Lance.”

“Shh. Don't move. If you move they'll fall.” Lance very carefully placed another stone on top of the first, and then another, his many years of playing Jenga with his younger nieces and nephews finally paying off.

“The only reason I'm not moving is so that whatever you're putting my head doesn't fall off and go crashing into my laptop.”

“They're rocks.”

“Rocks,” She repeated.

“Yes.”

He went to place another one on top of the stack, now six stones high, but Pidge tilted her head before he could, sending the stones straight into the sand.

“PIDGE! I was doing so well!” Lance complained, and Pidge turned to face him, annoyance plain as day on her face.

“Lance, what are you doing.” She deadpanned. Lance merely shrugged.

“I'm bored, and you're ignoring me. We have vargas to kill looking at plants, come get in the water!” Lance whined. Pidge just exhaled in response.

“Water’s not really my thing, Lance.” She lied, thinking back to the days her family spent near the ocean. Moonlight Beach. La Jolla Cove. Torrey Pines. She heard a groan from behind her, and his feet shuffling through the sand and eventually back into the water.

The waves were calm, unlike those of Moonlight beach that she was used to. She remembered the five-hour drive they'd make up to SoCal to see her grandparents and how eager she and Matt always were to run straight into the water. Now Lance's excitement was painfully familiar, and as much as she wanted to join him, she wasn't sure if she could.

_Now is not the time to get homesick, Pidge._

Pidge dwelled on those thoughts as she put together bits and pieces of worthless software, scanned through Galra records she'd seen a million times for clues about the location of Shiro, her dad, and Matt, and really just wasted time. Lance continued to antagonize her at first, repeatedly asking her to get in the water and poking her cheek until she started ignoring him. He moved on to obnoxious singing, pushing buttons on her computer (and oh boy, did she make Lance regret doing that), and eventually tracing patterns in the damp sand around her with his fingers and placing stones in the designs to pass the time. After maybe twenty doboshes, Lance was bored out of his mind.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Lance knew better than to splash Pidge when she had her electronics out, that was asking for death. He recalled the one time Hunk had accidentally burst open a packet of soy sauce and got it into her keyboard, and how pissed she'd been at him. He was pretty sure Hunk still had very faint teeth marks from the incident in his arm. But sudden, freezing cold water would scare the quiznack out of Pidge, and she'd HAVE to at least chase him into the waves.

It would work. But at what cost?

Lance stood from his spot next to Pidge, careful not to step on the mandala he'd carved into the wet sand around her, and stretched his arms high above his head. “Welp,” He began, grunting and letting his arms fall back to his sides. “I'm gonna get back in the water now and cool off. The offer to join me still stands, you look smokin’ hot in that suit.” Pidge's fingers froze on her keyboard.

“Lance, never say anything like that ever again or I will cut off your-”

“-noted.”

She snickered as he walked off, completely unaware of what he was about to do. He approached the water, splashed around a bit to make it seem as if he was truly gone, then cupped his hands and scooped up some of the liquid.

Pidge was gonna kill him.

He approached her slowly, quietly. She seemed to be too absorbed in whatever she was typing (did he see the words ‘Lance is a loser’ in her code just now?) to even hear him step on and snap a twig behind her, or the pained squeak he made when it jabbed into his bare foot. He stepped closer, and closer, until he was standing right behind her, and dumped the water down the back of her collar, right into her armor and down her back.

_“WHAT THE QUIZNACK, LANCE!”_

Pidge was instantly on her feet and Lance was sprinting back into the sea, laughing maniacally. She began tearing off her armor until the only things left were her binder and boyshorts, and raced after him into the water. Lance splashed at her as hard as he could, trying desperately to keep her away, but she tackled him, and pushed his head under.

Pidge giggled as a stream of bubbles left Lance's mouth, like the little sadist that she is, and he pushed against her, up and out of the water. The roughhousing turned into a splash war, and then to the two of them literally just throwing handfuls of wet sand at each other until they were both too tired to continue.

They were deep enough in the water now that the waves weren't whitecapping as much, and Pidge sighed and floated on her back. Lance stayed close by, watching as her golden brown hair splayed out into a halo around her head and drifted through the water, sparkling in the light of the two suns. Her eyes were closed, a little red from where she'd rubbed salt out of them, and he followed a droplet of water as it trickled downwards from her dark lashes, through her freckles and into the sea. A wave rose up under her, lifting her slightly upwards, then traveled a few feet before whitecapping.

“Pidge?” Lance asked, and she opened one eye.

“Yeah?”

“I thought you said water wasn't your thing.” Pidge's relaxed smile fell at that.

“...I lied.”

Lance stayed silent, just looking at her, expecting an answer. She sighed and stood up, then pulled her hair back out of her face and into a lazy ponytail.

“The beach reminds me of earth, and my family,” Pidge admitted, focusing her eyes on the ripples in the water rather than Lance. He nodded.

“Ditto. That's why I wanted to get out of here, at first. But I gave in. I'm having fun.” He grinned at her, and she chuckled in response.

“Me too, Lance.” She straightened up, and met his eyes. “My grandparents live in Southern California, and my family lived in Arizona, so we'd make the drive up there a lot. Five whole hours, but it was totally worth it since Matt and I would play New Super Mario Bros on our DS’s until mom would let us go to Moonlight beach.”

“Versus or minigames?”

“Versus. I won every time, even when I let Matt pick the map. Whenever we played minigames Matt picked the stupid ‘she loves me not’ game every time, and for some reason, I could never beat him.”

“All you do is count the petals.”

“I know. But he got a lucky deal every time.” She laughed at the memory. “I got all my pens taken away by my mom because I stabbed Matt with one once. He’d just won his fourth game in a row.”

Lance snorted. “I'm not surprised, like, at all. Wait- did you say Moonlight beach?” He asked, his eyes lighting up with recognition.

“...Yeah? Why, have you been?”

“Dude, when I moved to the US, I lived in the California before I moved to go to the Garrison! I was a junior lifeguard there, I surfed there all the time!” Lance laughed at the irony of the situation. “I'd take my nieces to go see the dolphins; we got really close to one in the water once.”

Lance had nieces, huh? Pidge didn’t know that. She grinned. “I used to have to sit on my dad's shoulders to see the dolphins because I'm so small. And mom would bring Matt binoculars because he was practically blind without those glasses on.”

Lance nodded, listening intently. “I have twin older sisters, and they both had daughters around the same time. María and Tania, oh my god, they were a handful. They were only six and seven the last time I saw them, so they were tiny, too, and they'd fight over who sat on my shoulders. Tania usually won, and I'd have to carry María.” The memory made him laugh, and Pidge smiled tenderly, picturing Lance braiding a little girl's hair on the beach like he usually did for her, Allura, and Keith (at least, on a good day.)

“I didn't know you were so good with kids,” Pidge said softly. Lance shrugged.

“I have to be. Three nieces, two nephews, and tons of younger cousins. The McClain family is huge. We've got this weird mix of Cuban and Scottish traditions, it's hilarious.”

“I'm picturing, like, Dia de Los Muertos themed kilts.”

“That's more of a Mexican thing than a Cuban thing, actually.”

“Mexican Scottish.”

“Exactly.”

It was then that a huge clump of white seaweed washed over Pidge, and she started screaming in terror. Lance jumped at first, then was clutching his sides laughing when he'd realized what happened. Pidge moved the seaweed away from her face, a large amount of it still sitting on her head and hanging out like hair. She folded her arms, and pouted at Lance.

“...what are you laughing at?” She asked, cheeks starting to flush with embarrassment. Lance reached over and pulled a piece of seaweed away from her face.

“I'm laughing because you look like tinier, whiter Allura, and it's hilarious.” He said. Pidge's eyes widened and she choked back a laugh, then fixed her posture.

“Hello, _Lonce_.” Pidge said in a near perfect imitation of Allura’s accent. Lance's hand flew up over his mouth and he held back a screech. “You and Pidge need to stop messing around, there are planets we should be saving! Keith and his furry friends are still after us, you know!” Lance broke and then so did Pidge, both of them falling back into the water in a fit of giggles.

“I can’t believe you just called the Galra furries.” Lance choked out, barely able to speak he was laughing so hard. Pidge shrugged, and pulled the seaweed out of her hair, quickly dunking her head under the water to get any little bits of it out. It was when she did this that she accidentally swatted at one of the shrimp creatures, and it started to glow bright blue.

“Woaahhh….” She gasped, but her words were drowned out by bubbles. She couldn’t see the creature very well under the water so she rose back up without taking her eyes off it the entire time. The glow was mesmerizing, and apparently Lance thought so, too, and the two of them stared at it until it darted away in the water. Pidge and Lance looked up at each other, each bouncing with excitement.

“Oh my GOD, I’ve never seen that before!” Pidge said. “I mean I’ve heard about glowing algae and plankton before but-”

“Light produced through a bioluminescent chemical reaction, oxidation caused by the catalyst luciferase.” Lance explained, sounding as if he was reading from a textbook. His remark had been louder than he’d intended, apparently, since Pidge had stopped talking and was now staring at him with a surprised look on her face. Lance’s cheeks darkened. “Sorry. I wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid. If I don’t keep that stuff fresh in my brain I’ll lose it.”

Pidge was shocked by this piece of information. Lance was the kind of person who always seemed to be bored of and confused by anything remotely scientific. “...wow. What happened? How did you end up wanting to be a pilot?”

“Takashi Shirogane, that’s what happened.”

“Oh, me too, me too.” Lance stuck his tongue out at her. “I wish we could’ve gotten a better look at that thing before it swam away, though.” Pidge swished her hand around in the water, trying to see if she could startle another one of the creatures out of hiding. That’s when Lance got an idea, and reached for her outstretched hand. She froze, and looked up at him.

“Pidge, I have an idea! Come on-” He wasted no time leading her out of the water, ignoring her surprised squeak when he tugged on her arm. When they were back in the sand she caught up to him, walking by his side until they reached his lion. Reluctantly, she let her hand fall back to her side, deciding to ignore the fact that he’d held it the whole walk over to Blue.

“So…? Are you gonna tell me what we’re doing?” Pidge asked as Lance stepped into Blue’s mouth (two years later and still none of them had gotten over how weird that looked). He waved her in and she followed, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of sand between her toes as she walked.

“We…” Lance begin, taking a seat in the cockpit and switching on Blue’s headlights, “are gonna go hunting for mermaids.”

“Mermaids?” Pidge frowned, confused at first. Then it hit her what Lance was implying. “Oh- oh! We’re gonna use Blue as a submarine and look at all of the sea creatures!”

Lance flashed her a grin, and took her arm yet again. “Yup. Blue moves through the water like it’s nothing. Now hold on tight, there’s only one seat in this thing.”

Pidge stepped closer to Lance, one hand on the arm of his chair and one on the back, and Lance released her arm so he could start moving Blue forward. Blue lifted herself up off the ground as gently as she could, getting Lance’s hint, and started to glide out over the water, far away from the shore. Pidge was only really jolted when Blue suddenly dipped into the water, sinking lower and lower, and then it was safe to stand again.

Pidge let go of the chair and Lance stood up, both of them rushing closer to Blue’s screen. She’d zoomed out her camera (her eyes? Neither of them were sure how that worked exactly) so they could get a better look at the world around them, and oh, how different the world looked beneath the ocean.

Creatures of every color swam this way and that way, all iridescent scales and wispy fins, some more like earth fish than others. Some looked like small, green goldfish and swam in schools, some looked like horned crabs that scattered across the ocean floor, and some looked like sea snakes coiled in beds of coral. It was like they were on a whole different planet than before if Pidge was being honest. She’d never been snorkeling before, never seen the sea floor from this point of view.

The view was absolutely breathtaking. Pidge and Lance watched the wildlife in awe as the Blue Lion drifted through their little universe. In that moment, it was Pidge and Lance’s little universe too.

Pidge was not a poetic person, she'd decided. She was fluent in the language of binaries, of _if's_ and _then's_ and one's and zeroes, not so much at stringing words into sentences worthy of being captured in ink.

She wasn't poetic, she decided, as she began to compare the azure of Lance's eyes to that of the water that shone around them, casting an ethereal glow upon his dark skin. As she listened to his breath hitch, the sound soft like a distant ocean wave. As he watched a school of Splenden-like alien fish swim across Blue's screen, gliding through the water with ease. As the corners of his mouth twitched upwards into an awestruck smile, and he gazed through the screen at the plants and creatures drifted that through the blue, circling them, like bits of stardust revolving around a sun. And he was the sun.

Yup. Definitely not poetic.

A poet wouldn’t use a space metaphor after a series of ocean metaphors. There we go. That made sense. This all made perfect sense. _Lance_ made perfect sense.

_What…?_

She was startled out of her thoughts when she violently shuddered, catching Lance’s attention. It was only then that she realized the hadn’t wrung her hair out and was still sopping wet, and that Blue, the Guardian Spirit of the _Water_ , was cold.

“Oh- here.” Lance walked out of the cockpit suddenly, and disappeared into Blue. Pidge watched the doorway intently, and he was back after only a moment, something in his hands. She turned away quickly, busying herself counting fish until she felt something rest on her back.

Looking at her sides, she’d seen that Lance had brought his jacket with him, and draped it over her shoulders. His hands still hadn’t left her collarbones after a few ticks, and Pidge waited with bated breath to see where this was going, until he was slowly pulling her closer, his arms wrapping around her shivering form.

Lance was holding her.

Almost immediately, she was warm again; Lance’s body heat, his jacket, and the sudden heat rising in Pidge’s cheeks had solved that problem pretty quickly. Slowly, she leaned back into Lance, and worked up enough confidence to reach up and rest one of her hands over his.

“...better?” Lance asked nervously, and Pidge swore she heard his voice crack.

“...yeah. Much better.” She replied, her voice equally as quiet and cautious.

They weren’t sure how much time they actually spent like that, as Blue guided them through the water, more focused on each other than the fish anymore. Plaxum herself could have swum right in front of them and Lance wouldn’t have batted an eye, because all he could think about was Pidge.

She’d stopped shaking long ago, but that didn’t stop him from holding her so closely. His heart was pounding, and _honestly?_ he had no idea why. Surely she could hear it, she was so small compared to him and her ears sat right at his chest, but she didn’t say anything, didn’t tease him for it, didn’t yank herself free.

The two were drawn out of their trances when Blue finally started to rise up out of the water, slowly breaking the surface and presenting them with two setting suns. She turned back towards the shore, dragging her toes lazily through the water, and started to whisper, only audible in the far corners of Lance’s mind.

 _‘You’re welcome.’_ She said, and Lance could’ve sworn he heard a giggle. His jaw dropped, and thank Alfor Pidge couldn’t see Lance’s face when he realized what Blue had done.

Not only had she planted the idea in his head for the two of them to go on a romantic submarine ride (who did Blue think she was, honestly,) she’d kept them in the water just long enough that they could watch the setting suns when they reached the shore again.

And if Blue wasn’t the best quiznacking wingman (woman? lion?) in the entire universe, Lance didn’t know who was.

Pidge was calmer now than she was before when Blue touched down in the purple sand. Her little trap-door opened, and Lance loosened his grip on Pidge so she could turn around in his arms. She was grinning up at him, and suddenly all his nerves were gone, and he was smiling right back at her.

“Wanna watch the sunset?” She asked, practically glowing. “That was always my favorite part of coming to the beach."

Lance immediately nodded. “You mean the suns-set? I think there are two.”

“Like Tatooine.” Pidge pointed out. Lance snorted.

“Yeah, something like that.”

He let her go, and the two of them walked out into the light of the setting suns, the first already kissing the horizon and casting an orange glow over the water. The sky looked much like that of an earth’s sunset, though more red and purple than pink and orange. Pidge shed Lance’s jacket almost immediately, finding the air to be comfortably warm, and laid it out like a blanket for her to sit on once they’d found a spot in the sand.

“What, I don’t get a beach blanket?” Lance joked, taking a seat on her right side. Pidge just shrugged.

"I don't like sand.” She said softly, staring at the horizon. Lance looked at her curiously. “It's coarse, and rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere."

Lance shoved her shoulder. “One more Star Wars joke and I’m going to strangle you, Pidgey.”

“Ooh, gonna force choke me?”

_“Pidge.”_

She laughed and shook her head to herself, then pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin there. Pidge was content, and so was Lance, and a comfortable silence fell over them as the first of the twin suns sank below the horizon.

“...you said the sunset was your favorite part of coming to the beach.” Lance said after a few doboshes. When Pidge turned to face him, he was already staring at her. “Why?”

Pidge flushed, not having expected that question. “Oh, uh. Well.” She stuttered at first, trying to articulate an explanation while pushing down the wave of emotion that hit her out of nowhere.

“...my parents loved each other a lot, I guess.” She began, turning away from Lance so he couldn’t see her face. The sky seemed more dark purple than black or blue where the light of the suns no longer reached, and the red of the second sun, about to follow its sister behind the sea, was the same shade as her face. “My mom loved the sunset. And she’d take pictures of _everything_. She wanted to be a photographer before she became an astrophysicist, can you even imagine? Every time we’d go to the beach, she’d hand Matt her camera, and he’d get a picture of my mom and dad standing in front of the sunset.”

She remembered the two of them wading out into the water, hand in hand, her mom giggling excitedly. Sam would tell Colleen how her eyes sparkled brighter than the sun every single time, and Pidge and Matt would stifle their laughs and force disgusted groans instead.

“Couples are so gross.” Matt would say, and cover Pidge’s eyes, leaving space between his fingers so his little sister could see anyway.

“Yup. They’re the grossest.” Little Katherine Holt would agree, watching her parents intently.

“Sometimes my dad would kiss her. Sometimes he’d ruffle her hair so bad she wouldn’t want a picture. But he always had her arms around her, or was at the very least holding her hand.” She continued quietly, almost able to picture her parents’ silhouette against the orange sky as she watched the second sun finally start to fall.

“It was nice seeing them like that. I don’t know, they were perfect to me.” Pidge admitted, shrugging slightly. “It’s stupid, but I just… really wanted that.”

It was silent for a moment, and Pidge was worried that she’d creeped Lance out or something, until he spoke up.

“I… I get it, Katie.” Lance said softly, and she froze. She wasn’t sure Lance had ever called her that. She didn’t turn to look at him, afraid to see the look on his face.

“You do?” She asked quietly. Lance hummed.

“My mom lived in Varadero all her life, and my dad was from San Diego. He flew all the way down to Florida and then to Cuba for a vacation one summer, and met her on the beach there. I think I was twelve or thirteen when it happened. And the two of them, only knowing each other for two weeks, knew they couldn’t ever be apart.” He explained, tracing nonsense in the sand with his fingertips before brushing it away and starting again. “So we packed up and moved to California, which is much harder than it sounds, by the way. I remember being mad about it at first, then I overheard my mom telling my sister Issabella how much she loved him, and I changed my mind, just like that.”

Pidge was quiet, offering only the occasional nod in response to Lance’s words. He continued.

“What I’m trying to say is… I get idolizing your parents, I guess, and wanting love like that. There’s a reason I flirt with every girl I meet and every guy I think might swing that way. I was desperate, I guess. I always just wanted _something_. Up until now I didn’t care what it was or who it was with, and didn’t know why it hurt so much every time I got rejected. But I think… I’m starting to understand now. Up until now, it just wasn’t real.” Lance spoke slowly, wording his confession carefully. It was clear how much he was struggling to keep his confident facade in that moment.

Why, though? Why was he telling Pidge this? Up until now he…

Oh. _Oh_.

Pidge was starting to understand, too.

She finally mustered the courage to turn and sneak a glance at Lance’s face, but he was already staring at her when she did. Blue eyes were suddenly lost in brown, and Pidge sat up.

“You’re my best friend, Katie.” He said quietly.

Slowly, Pidge shifted forward, situating herself in his lap with her arms wrapped loosely around his shoulders. Lance’s hands came forward to rest at her hips, and they were close enough that their noses bumped, Lance’s breath hitching at the sudden contact.

“...And you’re mine, Lance.” She whispered. Whether it was in response to his statement or just said in general, she wasn’t sure. But she knew she was right. Lance was hers.

She’s the one who decided, _screw it,_ and pressed her lips to his.

It could barely even be called a kiss, honestly; Pidge didn’t really know what she was doing and had just bumped her mouth into Lance’s, but the two savored it nonetheless. Lance guided Pidge through the motions, tilting his head slightly so their noses wouldn’t squish, and moved his lips slowly against hers until she got the hang of it. The kiss was disappointingly short, as Pidge had gotten scared and pulled away as soon as she felt Lance’s mouth open slightly, but was relieved to find he had just been smiling at her.

“I- uh-” Pidge’s face was on _fire_ now, and she wanted to say something meaningful but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. Lance snorted, before breaking out into hysterics, and fell back onto the sand laughing at her awkwardness.

“What?! Lance, what is it, what did I do wrong?” She cried, and Lance only laughed harder.

“You like me! I knew you liked me, I quiznacking KNEW it!” Lance said through a fit of giggles, and she punched him square in the stomach. “Ah! Don’t do that!”

“N- no I don’t! It’s the salt water! I drank it and now I’m going crazy!” She protested, but Lance wouldn’t take it. “No, wait- the berries. I bet they were laced with something.”

“Pidge, you KISSED me! This isn’t how dating works!”

“WE ARE NOT DATING!” And with that, Pidge tackled Lance, tickling his stomach as they rolled in the sand, giggling maniacally. Eventually, they settled, Pidge with her head resting against Lance’s chest, and his arms around her waist.

“Do you want to be?” Lance asked after a few moments. “Dating, I mean.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”

“Sweet.”

They kept quiet as the second sun finally fell beneath the horizon, and the sky was filled with stars. Lance kept a hand in Pidge’s hair, and began tracing circles in her scalp with his fingernails. She hummed at the sensation and he chuckled, then placed a chaste kiss to her forehead.

“How long have you liked me, Pidge?” He asked. Blunt, he realized, once the words had left his mouth. But he needed to know.

“Uh…” She thought about that. “Consciously? A few vargas.” She admitted, and Lance laughed at that. “But, in reality? Probably like, forever.”

“Even back at the Garrison when I was super annoying?” Pidge raised an eyebrow.

“Oh no, trust me, Lance. You’re still super annoying.” They both giggled, and then Pidge wanted an answer, too. “What about you? How long have you liked me?”

“The same.”

“Sweet.”

Pidge sat up to get a better look at Lance, folding her arms and resting them on his chest. He used one arm as a makeshift pillow and the other to brush some of Pidge’s sandy hair away from her face. He hadn’t really realized how much it had grown until then.

“Pretty.” Lance whispered, and Pidge’s lips curled upwards. “You’re like a sunset. Your smile is so bright.”

“Quit being a poet, Lance. If you keep writing me love letters like this I’ll be less like a sunset and more like a rainstorm. I get emotional.”

“Maybe we’re both poets.” Lance suggested. Pidge shrugged.

“Maybe.”

**Author's Note:**

> yeet yote
> 
> i hate this fic so much now
> 
> please kill me


End file.
